Road trip

CAN'T WAIT!

Hi,this is RC!

I am so excited to go to TEXAS! (By the way Mom actally let me type on my own this time!) It will be the awesomest if I make it without puk'in the whole time (I get car sick if I don't take medicine)! Anyways, I just can't wait to see G and G's new house! It will also be awesome to see other family members, too. Christmas is the time of giving so here's a joke. Why did the orange go to the doctor? Because he wasn't peeling well! Have a great Christmas everyone!-RC

A good point

Rhiannon: Mom, can I make some posts on the blog? Because, ya know, it's the Cushing Family blog, not the Verity Cushing blog.

(Expect future posts from Rhiannon! :))

"What do we DO with our blessed life?"

Last week I came down to the kitchen in the morning and noticed this beautiful "picture"--the sun was shining directly on the vinyl clings we'd placed on the porch doors, leaving a nice Christmas reminder for us all! :)

Over the weekend I was SICK, SICK, SICK with a stomach bug that's been going through Ridgecrest like wildfire. I paid homage to the "porcelain god" all Friday night, stayed in bed all Saturday, was super sore on Sunday, and still recovering Monday. Tuesday was the first day that water finally tasted good! I am SO thankful I'm feeling better and very appreciative to Jason and the kids for taking care of each other and letting me rest. I'm praying that they will be able to stay healthy, too, especially for our big trip next week!!! Except for that road bump, it's been a busy month. I think we've had a good balance of "doing good to others" and also having fun with lots of parties and fun activities.

Last night our fantastic home teacher dropped by for a visit. One thing he said that I haven't been able to stop thinking about was that blessings should flow. Instead of saying, "Oh, I'm so blessed, I'm so thankful for my good life" and then sitting on those blessings, we should use our blessed life to continue to bless the lives of those around us. That thought reminded me of a quote I read from President Uchtdorf, too:

"Disciples of Christ throughout all ages of the world have been distinguished by their compassion. … In the end, the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance. Let us open our eyes and see the heavy hearts, notice the loneliness and despair; let us feel the silent prayers of others around us, and let us be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to answer those prayers.”

I love that. If I can do that, it will be easy to keep "the Spirit of Christ" in Christmas!

Christmas lights

The picture isn't too great, but the lights sure look great in person! Thanks, babe!

A delicious "disaster"

This week we got a fun Christmas package from Grandma Deb. We love the seasonal surprises she puts together! :) The gingerbread house kit was great--the kids LOVED it! Even after I totally screwed up the icing, Rhiannon and Wade went to town with all the candy. They stuck it on the roof the best they could, and then they'd take turns tapping the house to try to get the candy to fall off!!! Thanks for a fun activity to kick-off Christmas, GMa Deb!

Ready for the holidays

Yesterday we worked from sun-up to sun-down getting the house ready for Christmas! Wade helped Jason outside with Christmas lights (I'll get a picture of that later), and Rhiannon helped me put up the tree inside. The kids had a BLAST decorating, especially since 90% of our Christmas goodies had been in storage for 2 years... They have been busy the last few hours playing with all the different Nativity sets (I didn't realize we had so many!) and reading our stash of Christmas books.

In the afternoon we all helped Jason stack some wood and got to enjoy a nice toasty fire in the evening. The previous homeowners heated the home almost exclusively by burning wood all winter, so we're going to experiment with that. Jason's Boy Scout skills sure come in handy! :)

A great Turkey Day!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving this year with our friends. The Samuels family joined us along with Sandi (we missed Howard who wasn't feeling well that day--at least he got a plate of food to enjoy later!) We ate and talked for a couple hours, rested and talked for another hour, and then enjoyed delicious pie and cheesecake and talked some more. We all had a good time. :)

The fridge is STILL FULL of leftovers. I, um, miscalculated on the amount of food that we needed, but hey, it's better than not having enough...right? :)

Happy Holidays!

Count your blessings

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Our family has so much to be thankful for--we're mindful of our blessings today and every day. Love to you all!

Pass it on!

Did I hear that right?

So, when Jason goes on travel, he tells Wade to take care of us girls. I didn't expect this little gem, though:


Mom: Would you kids like to go out for dinner tonight? We could check out some furniture stores and get dinner after that.

Kids: Yes!

Mom: Okay, your choices are...NOT McDonalds. How 'bout Subway, Weinerschnitzel, or Taco Bell?

Wade: I vote for Weinerschnitzel.

Rhiannon: I vote for Subway.

Mom: Subway is right next door to the furniture place, Wade.

Wade: Uh! But I'm the man of the house!

Mom: ( !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! )

Lucky Friday the 13th!

Jason called me as I was leaving the kids' school assembly this morning. We were able to close on both homes today--sold 706 and officially bought 908. HAPPY DAY!!! Crank up "Shout It" and sing on the rooftops with us! :)

Shout shout shout it
From the roof top let it out
Shout shout shout it
Till the world can hear it now

Are we thankful? You better believe it!

706 Randall is supposed to close today. Are we thankful? YOU BETCHA!

No more echo!

On Friday Jason and I had a great time furniture shopping. We took the plunge and purchased some great pieces for the front living room. I love them! :) We bought a couch and love seat, matching end tables and coffee table which were all delivered on Saturday. In a month we'll get another delivery--two leather recliners! Yee-haw!

Trick or treat!

Happy Halloween! It's so spooky the way time flies by lately. October's been a good month for us and others--WELCOME to our brand-new cousin, AUGUST RICHARD SHEEN!

Halloween has been great and fairly relaxing. Yesterday the kids could wear their costumes all day at school if they wanted. Rhiannon was a cat this year--she was thrilled to see that her teacher had the same costume on! (Thank you, WalMart, for your $5 cat set). Officially Wade was Darth Vader this year. He didn't want to wear his costume at school all day ("what if I have to go to the bathroom?"), and when I got there to help with the kindergarten carnival he decided not to wear it because he thought it was still taped and scratchy (I thought I'd be brilliant and do a no-sew alteration on the too-long legs--it didn't help). He was Iron Man for the church trunk-or-treat activity last night, and if I can assure him that his costume is no longer itchy, he'll join the Dark Force tonight. (Have Wade do his Darth Vader impression for you--it's pretty darn good.) This afternoon the whole family went to our neighbor's house for a b-day party--it was great getting to know the Samuels family a little better. And tonight I'll take the kids around this older neighborhood and see if we can scare up a little, but not too much, candy. :)

Other good news--we should be closing on the 706 house next week and have been told that the 908 house should close shortly after that. We celebrated early with some furniture shopping yesterday and came away with some great stuff. Stay tuned for pictures. :)

Hope all is well with you, too!

Wade enjoyed this donut game at the kindergarten party.

Ready for candy!

"Luke, I am your father."

What a great cat! She looked great in this!

Yay! Happy cat for the day.

"I've had a really great day today!"

"I've had a really great day today"--that's what Wade said tonight as we were cleaning up. And that's what birthdays are all about, right?

Our little guy isn't so little anymore--the first thing Wade wanted to do when he woke up was measure how tall he was, as if he'd magically grown a bunch overnight. :) And with the fun exception of opening presents early with GPa Rod and GMa Deb, we kept the birthday celebration to one super-concentrated day. Birthday donuts in the morning, birthday snacks to share with his class at school (Jason came by to help hand them out--Wade lit up when he saw him walk in the cafeteria door!), and then a G-Force themed party right after school. We kept the guest list to friends from his school, which was plenty. It turns out that the big, open vaulted front living area in our house tends to, um, amplify sound pretty well when kids are all excited and loud. 90 minutes of fun, food, presents, and, um, noise. :) But, hey, I can't complain. Wade LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT, and the kids were good. MANY THANKS to Daddy for picking up the pizza and to Howard and Sandi for making our party complete--I think I owe Howard some fancy ear plugs or headphones for his patience. :)

We love Wade. He's a great kid, trying to do what's right, and it is so much fun watching him grow up.

LOVE YOU, WADE! Happy 6th Birthday!!!

"Make a Memory" weekend

My parents are forever free of mortgage payments now that they own their home in Houston. HURRAY! They invited all their kids to go and "make a memory" to celebrate this.

So, in honor of Rich and Donna, we drove down to see the air show at Edwards Air Force Base on Saturday. I'm not sure how many people were there that day, but last year about 200,000 turned out... It was a beautiful day and there was a lot of cool stuff to see! Highlights included a long, loud F-16 demonstration, getting to climb into jet cockpits and helicopters, walking inside huge transport planes, bumping into a few Ridgecrest friends, hearing Chuck Yeager speak (now in his 80s?), seeing the Scaled Composites White Knight One and White Knight Two, and joining a silent crowd of thousands as we listened to the national anthem and watched a parachuter slowly land, flying the American flag. That was just for starters. It was also neat to see the A-10, or tank killer, the plane that Jason would have liked to have flown if his life had gone in that direction.

We did have one scary moment. After walking around for a few hours, we got some food and stood while we ate. Rhiannon said, "I'm feeling dizzy." She got very pale and started to faint. I was useless, trying to prop her up and save our plates of pizza at the same time--luckily Jason caught her and had her sit down on the ground before she hit the pavement. Not sure why it happened--maybe she locked her legs? Thankfully she was fine the rest of the day!

McDonalds, movies, mountains, and more

Friday--Jason got back from a week in DC; Grandma Deb and Grandpa Rod rolled into town right when I was picking the kids up at school. That night we enjoyed a McDonald's feast (kid's choice) and our first of three movie nights starting with Ironman.

Saturday--while Jason and Grandpa were gone in the morning, the kids and I went to the store with Grandma and picked out pumpkins for Halloween. :) Then we all drove up to Whitney Portals for a picnic; it was brisk up there but so beautiful! That night Howard and Sandi joined us all at Pizza Factory--yum! We watched the Bourne Supremacy that night.

Sunday--nice quiet day with some church meetings mixed in. We grilled salmon for dinner with lots of help from Grandma Deb and watched the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Monday--no school, no work, more fun with Grandma and Grandpa! Picked up lunch at Weinerschnitzel and ate at the park, played lots of Wii, and Wade got to open some birthday presents early from Grandma and Grandpa. (The stack of books was definitely a favorite!) Had tacos for dinner, and then sent G & G on their way with lots of kisses and hugs.

It was a super fast weekend, but we are SO HAPPY Grandpa Rod and Grandma Deb were able to come down and be with us. Love you!

"Happy Columbus Day!"

Happy, happy weekend--
1) Wade's first kindergarten field trip to a fire station
2) much-anticipated visit from Grandpa Rod and Grandma Deb!
3) very successful first practice for the Primary program
4) lots of paperwork signed for sellling/buying of homes.
Life is good...pictures coming soon. :)

"I'm not nuts"

Normally I don't stay up late watching TV, but I felt compelled to watch this show on food allergies last night. What a fantastic, awesome documentary, and a great reminder to:

a) be vigilant and careful with Wade's peanut allergy
b) and sensitive to the allergies of others.

One mom knew other parents were frustrated when their kids' school adopted a peanut-free policy. But then she said, "Maybe they (the other parents) would understand if they knew that peanuts could potentially kill my child."

In our household we do the obvious--no jars of peanut butter, as-automatic-as-breathing label checking, Benadryl redi-tabs and, though we thankfully haven't had to use it yet, Jr. Epi-pens. I try to tell new teachers and playmates right off "no peanuts", but I have forgotten before. And I'm finally clueing in on Wade's natural aversion to most things chocolate--it probably doesn't taste good to him or makes him sick in the first place!

To our family and friends--thanks for your understanding and support with Wade's allergies. It means a lot!

"Checking on the fish"

We watched all 8 hours of General Conference this weekend, which is a small miracle. It was peaceful and fun and the talks were GREAT! :) The kids had a good time playing with Jason's old Lego sets, too.

Thought I'd get some footage of how Rhiannon and Wade spend most of their free time lately--outside! Even on a crazy windy day, they love jumping all over the rocks and haven't run out of new things to discover in the front yard. Several times a day Rhiannon says, "Well, I'm going outside to check on the fish, Mom!"

It's also been cool enough lately to (gasp!) wear sweatshirts! Yay! I'm loving the cooler weather, but that also means we'll have to cover up the pool soon. Rhiannon and I joined the Polar Bear Club this week and jumped into the pool after school one day. We stayed in the water for less than 2 minutes. :) Brrrrr....

Recharging my battery

It's been a long, good week. Very busy. This morning I didn't have to be any particular place, run any particular errand, or see any particular person, so I decided to pencil in some time for myself and recharge.

The first thing I did was pick up this month's Ensign. If you haven't read it yet, DO IT NOW. There were so many wonderful articles in there, it's hard to pick my favorite. Everything from President Uchtdorf's wonderful message about righteous women to the ideas for strengthening marriage. It's all good, and it really hit the spot for me this morning. (Click on the magazine cover for a link to the text!)

Lots to look forward to in the coming month:

1) General Conference

2) a visit from Grandpa Rod and Grandma Deb

3) Wade's 6th birthday

4) getting through the Primary sacrament meeting program!

The other night Wade predicted that our 706 house would sell in October. I admire his faith and hope for that to happen, too. :) Thanks to everyone for your continued thoughts and prayers with that!

Two Students of the Month!

Today was a VERY good day for our kids. They were BOTH chosen by their teachers to be September's Student of the Month. I have been grinning all day just thinking about it. They both were recognized for playing at the chess tournament, and they both were able to attend the school's Super Star activity (along with 300+ other students who did well this month. ;)) Wade had another unique honor of getting called up 3 times for reading awards--the only student to reach the top Triple A kindergarten reading level. Not a huge surprise to those who know Wade well...and should help get him moving in the reading programs reserved for grades 1st-5th.

We are SO PLEASED with Rhiannon and Wade--they're trying their very best, and it shows!

Plan to be surprised

A few weeks ago Jason asked if the rose plants were dead in the backyard. He kindly reminded me that they weren't hooked up to any automatic sprinkler system and needed to be watered by hand...so we've been working on that. Unofficially it's become Wade's job, and he's doing great at it! For less than 2 minutes of watering a day, the payoff has been amazing, and the roses are beautiful!

I am this close to finishing the blog book! I'm anxious for it to turn out after all the work that's gone into it, but we'll just have to wait and see what the final product looks like!

I'm also "crushing" over a movie I finally watched this week, the Steve Carell one called "Dan in Real Life." Lots of funny lines in that movie, but my favorite one makes me think. It's Dan's final lines in the movie:

"Dear Readers: For most of you, this is my first column in your paper. In the future, I will be answering your questions, but today I want to take a break from my usual format and talk to you about the subject of plans. Not so much my plan for this column, more like life plans and how we all make them, and how we hope that our kids make good, smart, safe plans of their own. But if we're really honest with ourselves, most of the time our plans don't work out as we'd hoped. So instead of asking our young people, "What are your plans? What do you plan to do with your life?"...maybe we should tell them this: plan...to be surprised." (Peter Hedges, Dan in Real Life, 2007)

I love that! Too many of our best-laid plans don't turn out the way we want them to, but, like my friend Kathryn's blog says, that's life. And that's okay!

Too short but very, very sweet!

My brother Brant called me last week and said he was flying to Ontario Airport on Sunday (from Dallas) to do some work in Victorville. Yesterday we prayed and crossed our fingers that his flight would land on time and he'd be able to zip up here to see us. Brant now has the very special honor of being our first visitor since we've been back in Ridgecrest, AND he was also the first one to see us when we were out in Virginia. :)

The kids were so excited to show him the house, and we had a great time catching up and visiting. The time went by way too fast, but we loved every minute of it!

Not many people would brave almost 5 hours of driving for a 2-hour visit, but Brant did and we love him for it. Thanks for coming, Uncle B!!! See you in December!

4-day weekends rock.

I liked Tommy's picture update, so I'm copying him. :)

Had a very relaxing weekend. In no particular order, here's what we did:

Jason bought and assembled a super-nice 3 burner Weber Genesis barbecue grill. All that's left to do is get a propane tank, get some steaks, and crank this bad boy up. And, yes, I'm completely okay with this--while Jason thinks steaks, I think fuel for emergency preparedness! :)



Jason and I had an indoor date night on Friday and finally watched "The Dark Knight" for the 2nd time. (We've had the DVD since Christmas!) I think I enjoyed it more the second time around, but it is still definitely not for kids.




On Monday we joined our new ward for their traditional Labor Day breakfast--tons of food, tons of people, tons of fun. Who said 2nd Ward is small??




After the breakfast, Rhiannon and Wade participated in their first chess tournament of the school year. It's a really neat program--different schools and organizations support it and every kid that plays comes away with something, either a ribbon or a trophy. We had a good time.

Rhiannon got a shiny chess medal--there were close to 40 kids in her 4th-5th grade category. Dad teased her about going easy on all the boys she played against, but really she needs to learn some strategies now that she knows how the pieces move. I was very happy for her--she did great after her 2-year hiatus from chess tournaments! :)




I wish I could capture the look on Wade's face when he first got his trophy. "Glowing" is probably the correct term. Out of 17 kids in the K-1 section, he got 8th place. I'm pretty sure he'll want to go to another tournament sometime. :)

2 pictures are missing from this picture update. I pulled weeds at the 706 house on Friday, and we swam a lot this weekend, too. :) Hope you and yours had a wonderful weekend, too!

Red sun. Blog book in progress.

Having a hard time coming up with a catchy post title today. :) Oh, well! On Saturday we had a bunch of smoke drift into town from down south. Made the house smell like smoke and left a nice layer of ash in the swimming pool, but a friend put things into perspective for me. I ran into her late that afternoon in the grocery store parking lot and I was complaining about the smoke, while her concern was for the people who were losing their homes or worse because of the actual wildfires. Good wake-up call for me. Here's a picture Jason took:




Yesterday I sat down to work on the book I'm making out of our blog. I haven't touched it since April, so I'm catching up. The plan is to "send it in" once our summer trip is in there. Maybe this picture will motivate me to keep on, keeping on! :) Happy Tuesday--have a great week!

Back-to-back-to-back-to-back

This week was speedy and our calendar was packed! I still can't believe it's Friday already.

On Sunday Jason and I gave talks at church and got ready to start our new callings. (Jason is the Young Men's president and I'm the Primary president.)

On Monday Rhiannon went to a fun birthday party after school.

On Tuesday Rhiannon had her very belated well-check with the doctor. That night I went to Back to School night and met their teachers.

On Wednesday Jason and I had an awesome lunchdate at Miso Sushi. That night he went to his first Mutual with the youth and Rhiannon went to ANOTHER party, this one was a swim party with Activity Day girls from church. This meant Wade and I had the house and pool to ourselves, so we had what Wade called some "mommy-son" time in the pool!

On Thursday I had my first presidency meeting (long but very productive). We all joined Howard and Sandi for a great dinner out at Bernardino's (YUM!), then I stopped by the church to check on Cub Scouts and went to a book club for a bit.

Today and tomorrow we'll get over to 706 Randall and do a little here and there so it's ready for a second Open House. (Yes, we still need your prayers on that one. :))

The kids have had a wonderful second week of school. Wade comes home every day talking about a new friend he made and Rhiannon LOVES her teacher and has a lot of fun at recess time.

I really need to get some pictures on here--I'll do it soon! I DID put a ton up from our crazy awesome summer, so maybe subconsciously I'm taking a break from that. :)

"My mom's on Facebook"

On his second day of kindergarten, Wade was excited to tell me that his new friend's mom was on Facebook, too! It made me smile--I don't think I knew what a computer was when I was his age. I hope he doesn't share anything TOO personal about me at lunch! :)

It's safe to say that Wade has had a good first week of school. He likes his teacher, loves the class pets in his room (especially Beastie, a super-sweet three-legged rabbit!), and enjoys recess. He's mentioned a few names of kids he likes to play with, although he didn't like it when one boy said "he wouldn't be friends anymore" if Wade didn't go along with his Lego builder idea of everyone being trash men... (?!?) I've already noticed he's writing his name better. Yesterday he mentioned that the books his teacher read to the class seemed kind of babyish--I told him to hang in there, and then I talked to his teacher about that briefly this morning. I knew she was getting routines down this week, but I wanted to give her a heads-up about Wade's reading. She was very enthusiastic about it and assured me that we'd get moving with that once she tested kids next week. We'll see how things go there.

Rhiannon is doing well, too. She's trying to learn people's names and says hi to them, she's scoped out some cool places at recess, and she's trying really hard to prepare for timed tests in math. She's done some interesting things to help her cope, too, like wearing the same suncatcher necklace every day, making sure we both are using the same color pony tail holder, having me touch or kiss a little charm on her bracelet for "good luck." I was so happy today when her teacher took a few minutes with me before school--I just said hi to her on the playground but she walked over and visited with me. I was super impressed--she showed real concern for Rhiannon and wanted her to do well and be comfortable in her class. I could go on and on about our conversation, but I'll keep it short and just say that Mrs. K is a keeper!

Should be a nice weekend--Jason is FINALLY out on the golf course today, we've got a wedding reception tonight, tomorrow I have RS Super Saturday, and on Sunday Jason and I give talks and get some new callings...we'll keep you posted! ;)

First day!

Well, I'm surviving. I only have 260 minutes left until I can pick up my buddies and find out all about their first day of school! We had a perfect first morning, too--Rhiannon was up shortly after 6am; she helped me wake Wade up. :) We got ready, had breakfast, did morning chores, and took pictures before we realized we still had 30 minutes to kill! School doesn't start until 9am for them.

What teacher wouldn't love these two? :)

As we walked through the crazy mass of school kids, I wondered what Rhiannon must be thinking. She recognized a few kids from church, but not many. When I asked her how she was doing, she responded with what has to be the most perfect coping mechanism EVER: "Oh, I'm just singing a Coldplay song in my head." TOO COOL!

Lookin' good, Wade-O!

What a doll--she's going to do great!

So, as Wade's class lined up and started the walk to their classroom, I felt like I was going to lose it. THANKFULLY I didn't cry there, but I couldn't resist calling out to him, "Have fun, Wade! I love you!" He looked right at me as he walked by and said, "Love you, too!" He was the strong one, sending me off for the day instead of the other way around.

They'll be fine. They've both got GREAT teachers, and they'll begin to notice there are a ton of kids from the ward who go to that school, too. I'm going to go "eat some bon-bons" (aka mop the floor and go grocery shopping), and I'll keep you posted on our new school adventures!

A shout-out!

I loved this.

Swimming, shopping, and "a steal"

Last week the kids had a great time taking some one-on-one swim lessons with our friend Matt (who just returned home from a 2-year church mission to Brazil the weekend before that! Talk about getting into the swing of things quickly!) He is a super teacher and the kids learned a lot from him.

Rhiannon prepares to kick off into a backstroke. (She perfected her freestyle that week, too.)




Working on getting those leg kicks just right.

By the end of the week, Wade could swim freestyle to Matt, without the noodle or any other kind of aid. That was cool!

Wade "torpedoes" to Matt.

Of course the kids LOVED the little party at the end of the week--the raft was so fun!

On Saturday we made a day trip down to Lancaster and Palmdale. It's a 90-minute drive there, but with that handy DVD player in the van now it sure went by fast. We did some school clothes shopping, got lunch at Chili's, and stopped at Costco. We got back in the early afternoon and had the rest of the day to relax, too. We loved it! (and we will try to do that more regularly than we did in the past).

One more highlight of the weekend was making a "steal" on a beautiful used bedroom set for the guest bedroom. After chasing around town looking at garage sales, we called the last phone number on our list and brought home all of the following for $500:

Queen bed mattress set, headboard, footboard, bedframe, 2 nightstands,

large dresser, and

a huge mirror!

We are very happy with it and think our guests will be, too (hint, hint!) :)